4th of July Family Vacation - Part 1

We packed up the baby and headed HOME to South Dakota for the week of 4th of July!!!!!!!!

We spent the first part of the week in Sioux Falls, seeing lots of family and friends.  We stayed with Jeff's sister's family, and had a wonderful time...we saw Ethan's aunties, uncles, cousins, and grandma and grandpa, and then Mommy's friends and their babies, and also Mommy's aunt and uncle and cousins (and girlfriends)!

Oldest cousin Nick, Grandma, and Ethan (in mommy's favorite Little Duck jammies) 

(ps - the baby literally never got put down!!)

Here's Ben!  The boys love Uncle Jeff because he plays with them like crazy!  

Auntie Jen loves baby bath time - we were more than happy to let her do it.

Grandpa and Baby - that right arm gets a firm grip on the chubby thigh!

Mommy's friend Emily, snuggling a baby that could be a twin to her own baby Max!

Little Miley (she is a Spit.Fire.) and Max

Marne, Miley, Mommy, Ethan, Max, and Emily

It was so fun to chat and watch the kiddos play - it's still hard for me to believe we are all mommies!!!!!!!!!!

This was soooo adorable - these 2 babies were cheesing at each other.  One would grin, which would make the other one grin, and on and on :)

Jeff took the boys on an adventure and found a turtle.  Because, of course they did.

Aunt Kathy was so in love immediately!!!  She would stroke his little hands - a perfect doting auntie.

Uncle Bill of course got thrown up on.  

They graciously hosted us for a dinner at the farm, with my cousins and girlfriends.  

It was so nice to catch up with everyone and introduce Ethan to so many people!  It was wild, and hectic - and this was only the first half of the trip!  We spent the 2nd half in the Hills (more to come).

All of this does make me wish we lived closer to family...and therefore we contemplate moving home every time we visit.  We need to visit when it's yucky - 20 below and snowy - because South Dakota is really wonderful in the summertime!